Three years ago, I read about the Fanfare Competition in a national newspaper. Budding composers were being encouraged to write orchestral fanfares for the Royal Opera House and the prize was for the winning entries to be recorded by the Orchestra of the Royal Opera House, under the directorship of Antonio Pappano. Not only that, but the winning fanfares were to be played during the performance intervals over the course of the following Season. I knew that our pupils would be excited by this amazing competition, but I was not fully prepared for their energy and their highly creative musical compositions.

We are a relatively small state middle school, with just under 250 pupils. I encouraged pupils to work in pairs, and the teaching staff also provided workshops in lunchtimes.

Over the past three years, we've submitted well over a hundred entries, with a few winners along the way. What followed for them was something that few young composers will have ever experienced, with our pupils accorded red carpet treatment from the moment they were chosen. Fantastically, winning doesn't seem to be the sole motivation for pupils entering. Last year we didn't manage a winning entry but this hasn’t put the current students off - I have already had a lot asking me when we are going to start writing them again. A key aspect of education is to motivate and inspire pupils and this is something that Fanfare does brilliantly!

I teach composition, through writing fanfares, to both Year 7 and Year 8 in the term after Christmas. The first three lessons are spent learning about fanfares and experimenting with compositional techniques. In the next few lessons, students come up with as many ideas and motifs as they can, and following lessons are spent refining ideas, working on structure and orchestrating on the whiteboard with the use of Sibelius.

Music is positive in our school – we sing in class and assemblies, provide orchestra, clarinet group, recorder groups, theory classes and instrumental lessons and there are numerous chances for our pupils to perform. And, thanks to Fanfare, some of our pupils can say that their music has been played to thousands of people and that they have worked with an internationally acclaimed orchestra and conductor. How inspiring is that?

On 22 November, Wayne McGregor | Random Dance will perform a trio of world premieres featuring dancers from The Royal Ballet; Edward Watson, Eric Underwood and Paul Kay.

The programme consists of works created by rising choreographic talents for dancers from both The Royal Ballet and Wayne McGregor | Random Dance.

Choreographer Paolo Mangiola, who has danced with Wayne McGregor | Random Dance since 2008, will present Alpha Episodes, a combination of solos and a trio that explores the identity of the alpha male. Set to an original electronic soundscape score by Swedish composer Dag Rosenqvist, it is blended with text from Virginia Woolf’s The Waves.

We joined Royal Ballet dancers Eric Underwood, Paul Kay and Edward Watson in rehearsals with Paolo at The Royal Ballet School last week. During the session, the grand piano remained unplayed in the corner; instead the studio reverberated with Dag's dense electronica as, in less than half an hour, a series of disjointed steps and spins became a sharply executed, expressive dance.

“They know their bodies so well and are trained in such a specific way. It’s like you have an amazing machine in front of you and you just have to press the right buttons,” explained Paolo. “They are beautiful artists, and each and every one of them has a different quality,” he continued. “I feel like a spoilt kid who has just been given three Ferraris to work with!”

Robert Binet, who was appointed Royal Ballet Choreographic Apprentice after working with Wayne McGregor in DanceLines last year, has created Life’s Witness, a work for eight Random Dance artists. Rob’s piece, which explores states of absence and presence, is set to five different pieces of music played by a live string quartet and accompanied by singer Melanie Pappenheim.

“I have learnt so much working with the Random Dance artists,” explained Rob. “They have brought so much to the piece. They are just brilliant at the way they approach tasks and handle the movement puzzles I give them.”

Royal Ballet Affiliate Choreographer Alexander Whitley will also present a work entitled Hertz for eight performers from Random Dance.

“The piece explores ideas of light,” he explained. “It looks at the behaviour of light and the scientific theories behind it, but in a humanistic sense.” He has set the work to Allow the Light by Icelandic composer Hildur Gudnadottir, which was inspired by how babies in the womb experience light. “I want it to reflect how our experience of light is always present in the way we view the world,” continued Alex.

Wayne McGregor, Resident Choreographer of The Royal Ballet, founded Wayne McGregor | Random Dance in 1992. The company quickly became renowned for its radical approach to dance, incorporating new technology into choreography and working with multi-disciplinary artists.

This season, the company will also perform FAR. A critically-acclaimed work known for its jaw-dropping visuals, it had its premier at Sadler’s Wells in 2010. It opens in the Linbury Studio Theatre on 15 November. Wayne McGregor’s Infra, an abstract ballet that features set designs by visual artist Julian Opie, will be performed in a mixed programme that opens on 3 November.

Wayne McGregor | Random Dance will be performing in the Linbury Studio Theatre from 22 to 24 November. Tickets are now on-sale.